Friday, April 3, 2009

The Great Game's Afoot: While I'm on vacation researching the effect of global warming on Caribbean coral, you could spend the time usually spent enjoying SAR reading up on the geopolitics of petroleum pipelines. Take notes - there won't be a test but it might help you understand the major saber-rattling over the next few years.

Clay Feet: Why does the Reagan myth persist? Republicans tout him, against all evidence, as the best thing since pockets on cowboy shirts. In reality his administrations initiatives were the base for the destruction American economy. Much, if not most, of what has gone wrong in the US of late can be traced directly back to Reagan's policies. But then, if the GOP didn't have failure to brag about, they'd have to keep quiet.

Ethics Lab: Researchers report that while crabs suffer pain, they seldom remember having been steamed or boiled.

At Bats: Bats are still dying by the thousands throughout the northeastern US. In two years at least a half million have succumbed to a new fungal infection, with mortality rates of 75 to 100% in infected colonies. In that a bat eats at least its weight in insects every day, the loss of bats may lead to much greater numbers of agricultural pests.

If A, Then No B: A province north of Beijing which supplies the city with much of its water is facing serious water shortages itself. Within 5 to 10 years Beijing will have to resettle large numbers of its residents.

Ray of Sunshine: The EPA plans "an aggressive review" of permit requests for mountaintop removal coal mining, focusing on the damage to water quality that occurs when the tops of mountains are dumped into streams.

Regan's policies unleashed a great economy. Growth, innovation and some of today's great companies came out of those policies. The failure was not the policies but, the greed and fraud perpetrated on the American people by the unethical practices corporate chieftains and the UTTER incompetence or more realistically corruption of the US regulatory, legal and political system.

Our Motto

Keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.